The invention relates to an actuating drive for installation in a body of a motor vehicle for actuating a sighting rod or the like to be movable between a stowed position and an in use position. An actuating drive of this general type is known from German Patent Document DE 3,814,009 C1.
Although the above mentioned publication outlines, in relation to a body wall or body opening, the installation position of the actuating drive whose actuator serves directly as a sighting rod providing a visual orientation aid when parking or in similar driving situations, nothing is expressed concerning the precise attachment of the actuating drive housing to the vehicle body, in particular there is no mention of how the free end of the actuator can be aligned with respect to the edge of the body opening which is penetrates. It is merely to be implicitly assumed that the actuating drive has a mount for its housing.
It is also impossible to gather from another relevant publication, German Patent Document DE 3,042,801 A1 any device for aligning the free end of the actuator during assembly in the body. All that is represented there is a rigid mount of the drive on a carrier fixed in the body. The free end of the actuator is provided with a radially projecting head which is drawn against sunk edges of a body opening during retraction. The rest position of the free end is precisely determined thereby.
Austrian Patent Document AT-PS 213,253 describes a parking aid for motor vehicles which has a feeler that can be extended rearwards from the body. This feeler is held in its retracted rest position by a mechanical retainer which must be overcome by the actuating rive of the feeler in order to extend it.
An adjusting device for an electrical switch is known (brake light switch HONDA CB 400 N), which via a setting nut supports a receiving sleeve provided with an external thread for the switch in a rigid mount. The switching point of the switch can be set steplessly by rotating the setting nut with respect to the receiving sleeve guided rotationally looked in the mount.
It is an object of the invention to provide an actuating drive of the above-noted type and, in particular, an attachment possibility that is suitable for restricted installation conditions and easy to manipulate for the purpose of compensating tolerance-induced dimensional variations of the body.
This object is achieved according to preferred embodiments of the invention by an arrangement wherein there is provided
a housing with an exit opening,
an actuator, which is guided in the housing and can be retracted and extended by penetrating the exit opening, and
a mount for attaching the housing to the body, the exit opening of the attached housing being supported at the edge on an edge of a body opening that can likewise be penetrated by the actuator, and
wherein said housing is supported on one side at least indirectly on the mount and is guided to be displaceable with respect to said mount to and fro along a displacement axis in the direction of movement of the actuator,
wherein a clamping device is provided by means of which an outer contour projecting from the housing on another side of an edge of the exit opening of the housing can be clamped against an inner side of the opening of the body.
The housing of the actuating drive can be clamped by means of a clamping device between the mount and an (upper) cover of the interior of the body component, the housing being centered in the body opening penetrated by the actuator. The required easy installation of the entire actuating drive in an extremely restricted body space, in particular in a mudguard cavity, is achieved when the actuating drive together with its mount--into which it can simply be clipped--is inserted into the tight installation space, whereupon firstly the mount is attached to the body and then the actuating drive is clamped against the body opening by means of the clamping device.
Such an arrangement is not limited merely to use of the actuator of the actuating drive as an extendable orientation aid, but can also be used, for example, in conjunction with a tank flap locking element--in which it is known that the actuator of a central locking control element can be guided directly as a latch through a cover plate of the tank flap (German Patent Document DE 3,504,466 C1).
Specifically with regard to use of the actuating drive within the scope of an orientation aid, it is possible firstly to use an adjusting device to align the edge of the exit opening of the housing of the actuating drive with the free end of the actuator before installation of the actuating drive in the vehicle body, or to align the free end of the actuator exactly with the corresponding opening in the body component after completed assembly, in order to achieve, in a simple fashion which facilitates assembly, a stylistically perfect, smooth surface in the region of said body opening. The edge of the exit opening is preferably conical and centers the housing in the opening when the clamping device is operated.
It is advantageous for the clamping device and the adjusting device to be designed as self-locking; a stepwise adjustment by means of retainers which can be canceled for the purpose of disassembly provides a particularly favorable assembly. Reworking is also avoided in this way. Furthermore, by pretensioning the actuating drive, thermal expansions and mechanical stresses occurring during driving are automatically compensated.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.